Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Sweet Potato Queen

Sweet potatoes are so freakin' versatile. You can make 'em into a pie. You can slice 'em into french fries. You can top 'em with vegan marshmallows and make candied yams. Or you can make this awesome Sweet Potato Bread with Roasted Pecans:

I invented this tonight for my cookbook, though I can't decide if it should be listed under Breads or Desserts. It's similar to a banana bread in that it's sweet but not overwhelmingly so. In fact, it does have one mashed banana in it, in addition to mashed sweet potatoes, whole wheat flour, and roasted pecans from my Uncle Dale's farm in Arkansas.

I've never invented my own bread recipe, but it seems pretty foolproof. I followed a basic formula that I've seen repeated in other bread recipes for ratios of baking soda, baking powder, flour, fat, and liquid. If you look closely, many recipes call for similar proportions.

However, since most recipes I looked at called for eggs, I was a little afraid this bread wouldn't turn out as well without them. But it seems like the mashed banana and baking powder did the trick for binding and rising. Who needs eggs anyway?

20 comments:

well! i just had to say hello!!! hope all is well and your baking/cooking is going strong!!!!Im sure ill start my blog up again.. but incase something happens.. email me when your going to come see the show! (if you do!)

Ditto to Katy's post, I'm totally willing to try out the delicious recipes in your book. As for the books, they area MUST read. I really enjoyed them. I don't usually get hooked on books, but these totally took over my life for about two weeks. I highly recommend them. Let me know what you think, I'm interested in your opinion about them.

I would have never thought to make bread out of a sweet potato, but why? It sounds delicious. I can't wait for your cookbook to come out, you can teach a unknowing Midwestern girl how to cook up Southern food right!

Thanks for the egg replacer trick!! It always makes me nervous to try different ways, because I never know how my baked goods will turn out. I can't WAIT for this recipe...sweet potatoes are my faaavorite.

Bianca you have done it again. A beautiful bread. How did you get such an orange colour? Are you using those orange sweet potatoes that you guys use in the US?Looks delish!A co worker was looking over my shoulder at work today and said what a lovely bread!CheersTay

I sure as hell don't need eggs! And sweet potatoes are definitely very versatile, I love them so much.... I recently saw something on food network where a lady made a sweet potato pound cake. Yum. Can't wait to try yours out someday...

I love sweet potato bread - it's been a while since I made it; always put my pecans on top with maple or brown (Succanat) sugar. I like crushed/whizzed flax seeds - the sweet potatoes do some binding on their own, too.

Now, the real trick would be to make a vegan Chess Pie...

Latayy - here in the US, we use yams and sweet potatoes, and usually they are all called "sweet potatoes." Yams are the orange kind and sweet potatoes are white/light inside.